Dan Carpenter: How anti-gay bias makes us all crazy

May 27, 2013

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Bill Buffie

Mary Byrne

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Say they passed a constitutional amendment in 14 states and then experienced a 36 percent increase in mood disorders, a 42 percent hike in alcohol use and a 248 percent spike in anxiety disorders in the population groups most affected.

Say the states that didn’t have such an amendment saw no significant rise in such psychological problems at all.

Would the sheer magnitude of these differences — found in a major study of 34,000 gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans — make discrimination against them worth examining as a health issue?

With the U.S. Supreme Court due to render decisions in two same-sex marriage cases within a few weeks, National Public Radio last week revisited the 2010 Columbia University report, which is based on research in the mid-2000s, before and after constitutional amendments were adopted restricting marriage to heterosexuals.

It is familiar evidence to Dr. Bill Buffie and part of a truckload of scientific backing he has brought to bear in articles and speeches arguing that denial of equal rights to gay individuals and couples harms their health and society’s as well. Surveys in Massachusetts and Vermont, for example, show vast improvement in the outlook and sociability of gay couples and their children under legalized marriage.

“This is so black-and-white from a medical/mental health standpoint,” said the Greenwood internist and straight champion of gay equality. “But we still struggle with this fear of the unknown.”

Mental Health America of Indiana Inc. agrees. So do a number of prominent Indiana medical professionals along with the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Women’s Medical Association, all of which oppose bans on same-sex marriage such as the Indiana amendment that could go to referendum in 2014.

In terms of physical well-being, married people have advantages of stability and security that put them ahead of everyone else, the data show. On the darker side, living in a society where one is constantly reminded he is legally unfit for a basic benefit such as marriage “can have mental health consequences,” Mental Health America says in its position statement against the amendment.

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Mary Byrne sees it every day. And has lived it. The program director for Indiana Youth Group — which recently lost its fundraising license plate to politics — believes the acceptability of bias against gay people such as she and those she serves has to wear on the psyche.

“It definitely contributes to a person’s internal fear of being safe,” she said. “There is potential for Indiana to go through this next year (with the referendum). It’s going to be so painful. There are going to be smears all over TV. What if they were doing this to people who were Irish, or black people?”

Ethnic and racial discrimination have given some ground over the generations; and Byrne has seen progress as well in her 61 years. When she was young, she crippled her relationship with a dear cousin by not going to her wedding — “because I felt (getting married) was something I’d never be able to do.” Seven years ago, she married her partner, Tamara Tracy, in a Quaker ceremony in the company of family and friends and without the blessing of the state of Indiana.

“Having that public ceremony made such a difference; to stand up and make that commitment,” she said. “So many gay people stay together 30, 40, 50 years and never take that step. They just go on about life.”

Secrets, she said, are the enemy of mental health. To get well, then, is to be seen. “When people hate you, they make you invisible.”

That speaks to what Buffie means about minority discrimination making the whole society mentally ill. He became conscious of the cost through one of his daughters, Sarah, who is a lesbian, and he has often seen the faces behind his studies and statistics.

Recently, he attended the wedding of two of Sarah’s woman friends in a small town in Ohio, where many well-wishers of all persuasions turned out, most especially the parents of both honorees, one a pastor.

“It was a terribly emotional experience,” Buffie said. “And one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had. It was about family, about commitment, about conservative values.”

And yet.

“It’s why the homeless teen population is way out of proportion,” he said. “Parents and churches buy into societal prejudice. Self-loathing, anxiety, depression, suicide, bullying being OK — everybody buys into it. The only way to change it is education and experience.”

He hopes the court will consider the education and experience his side has offered as it takes on the civil rights challenge of our time. He submits it’s already made inroads with the legislature. But the doctor’s not waiting for a miracle cure from Washington.